Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[Pksmom03]

They have qr codes for menus in English, French and Spanish.

Probably need to add Portuguese too.

 

[shoegal9]

Disney must have something better coming. Or the MB aren’t the revenue generators we all suspect.

Idk. Just doesn’t make sense to me to give up a revenue stream compatible with so many elements already embedded in the parks and resorts for something that is free. And the point someone made about international visitors and their reliance on WiFi networks is a good point. Shoot, I live in Washington DC and work with 3 people who only own flip phones. So I would imagine a total replacement won’t be phone app based. But who knows where the future is headed.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I struggled to place an order at Regal Eagle last weekend. I could go all the way to the end and each time I hit submit, I got the error message. Finally went to a CM, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, and they all had no idea what to do, either, and didn't seem willing to just let me order and pay either (there was a cashier there). Finally hit it 5000 times and it submitted. Remarkably, I wasn't charged 5000 times either!

I can see a lot of frustration when people are hot and hungry and the technology doesn't work. I get why they want you to mobile order (and normally love it!), but they need a back-up plan when someone can't. Like the AP who was turned away at Satuli because of a dead phone battery.

 

[yulilin3]

I struggled to place an order at Regal Eagle last weekend. I could go all the way to the end and each time I hit submit, I got the error message. Finally went to a CM, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, and they all had no idea what to do, either, and didn't seem willing to just let me order and pay either (there was a cashier there). Finally hit it 5000 times and it submitted. Remarkably, I wasn't charged 5000 times either!

I can see a lot of frustration when people are hot and hungry and the technology doesn't work. I get why they want you to mobile order (and normally love it!), but they need a back-up plan when someone can't. Like the AP who was turned away at Satuli because of a dead phone battery.

I had this happen yesterday at D luxe burger. It actually did charge and refund all 4 times that it was unsuccessful, finally the 5th try worked, it's the first time mobile order hasn't worked for me

 

[Wiltony]

We just got back from a full week out there. It was undeniably hot and I will avoid August in the future, but it didn't ruin our trip. Masks were not fun to have to wear, but again, not trip ruining and we were ok. We were really happy to be there and for the most part had a great time. Just had to go with the flow for a lot of things not open, not operating, limited capacity, closing early, etc. Lines were longer and parks busier than I would have thought after reading about others' experiences, but still MUCH shorter/lower than we would have experienced during a normal trip. We went on pretty much everything we wanted to go on each day, at each park.

It's was definitely a memorable trip and we have tons of mask-on pictures to remind us of our "great pandemic WDW trip of 2020."

Summary of pros/cons:

• Pros
  • Shorter Lines
  • Lower crowd levels
  • Pools were great
  • Cast Members were excellent, as usual
  • Most food was great
  • Most people were respectful and good about mask wearing and social distancing, and everyone was happy to be there
  • More mobile ordering (I love mobile ordering)
  • Hand sanitizer everywhere (this should remain permanently)
  • 30% AP Merch Discount was freaking phenomenal. I saved literally hundreds of dollars.
  • WE GOT TO BE AT DISNEY WORLD
• Cons (while there are many more, they still don't outweigh the pros and we're really glad we went!)
  • Mask wearing is not fun, but not world-ending. Biggest impacts from masks are:
    • Hearing each other -- too often I was trying to have a conversation with a CM and we're both wearing masks and they're behind plexiglass
    • Pictures -- others seem to be good at it, but I'm not good at smiling with my eyes. Even though I was smiling, I look irritated or mad in a lot of my pictures.
    • Ear fatigue -- I actually found an ear-saver on the ground and ended up sanitizing it and using it the rest of my trip -- it was a life (ear!) saver!
    • Where to put it when taking it off -- I recommend getting a binky lanyard of some kind to hold your mask when taking it off. No good places in the bathroom or a restaurant to put your mask.
    • If you have a larger face and/or beard, make sure you have your comfortable masks before you come in the parks. I searched for 5 of my 8 days for an XL disney mask and couldn't find any. They're very rare! Even once I found them, they're sized inconsistently and only 1 of the 2 I bought fit me.
    • Once in a while it did feel a little suffocating. During those times, it helped to pull it away from your face a little (not to the side, and not off) when breathing in, then back on your face when breathing out so it can do the job it was intended to do.
  • Transportation -- it was extremely difficult to get home to BLT after we had dinner at Riviera and Wilderness Lodge. On both occasions a CM had to make a "special exception" to get us home.
    • Bay Lake Boat Transportation loop (Contemporary/WL/Ft. Wilderness) was closed
    • Epcot Monorail Closed
    • Bus transportation was awkward with social distancing, and Contemporary bus stop did poor job and enforcing first-come-first serve, so a lot of people would jump ahead to get on the next bus.
    • Usually my solution involved getting back to MK then walking home from there, but they said they weren't allowed to bring guests to MK after park close, which was at 7, and that was usually after we had finished dinner.
    • My backup plan was to take a bus to the springs then a bus to BLT, luckily did not have to do that.
  • TOTWL at BLT Closed
  • Electric Water Pageant Closed (I think I missed this the most, out of everything)
  • While I like mobile ordering, they had a glitch where they would cancel your order if you didn't complete it with a certain amount of time. I lost a few orders this way, even while actively adding things to the order
  • No Fireworks, of course
  • Everything closes too early (parks, pools, restaurants) -- there's nothing to do after 9p
  • QR Codes for Menus got old fast -- I hate using phones at the table
  • No park or resort delivery from gift shops -- minor annoyance if I decided to buy something earlier in the day
  • Lines to get into shops, especially at the end of the day
  • Almost everything is off on Kali River Rapids. We couldn't get wet at all despite going on it three times. They said they didn't want people to get their masks wet.
  • I lost a ROTR boarding group #1 because lightning knocked out the ride the night before

Again, seems like I'm complaining about a lot, but I'm actually really glad we went -- we had a great time and you will too as long as you keep your expectations low and remain easy going while there.

 

[crazy4wdw]

If you want the CR for the 50th be ready to jump and book as soon as they reopen the ability to do so! I booked before all of this and there were apparently only lake view tower rooms left (all club level rooms & TPV were gone... didn't ask about garden). I don't anticipate a super high amount of cancellations (I'm sure there will be some for financial reasons, but I doubt a mass exodus) for the 50th because I think most anyone who booked that far out for it is a pretty dedicated Disney addict . Seems like CR rooms just went super fast and probably will again.

I wonder how many people are planning this? I was planning a 14 day trip for the 50th with a split-stay at POP/POFQ. But I've always wanted to stay at the Contemporary so I thought 3 or 4 nights there around Oct 1 would be great - then on to POFQ and, maybe a few days at POP to ease some of the cost.

I called at exactly at 7:00 am 499 days prior to an arrival date of Sept 30 for 4 nights and was able to reserve a Tower Magic Kingdom View. I heard that the concierge rooms and Tower Magic Kingdom View rooms were sold out around 11:00 am.

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I called at exactly at 7:00 am 499 days prior to an arrival date of Sept 30 for 4 nights and was able to reserve a Tower Magic Kingdom View. I heard off the the concierge rooms and Tower Magic Kingdom View rooms were sold out around 11:00 am.

I think a lot of people will still go, but I also think that the festivities will be scaled back. I went ahead and used a placeholder that was going to expire on a 4 night DCL cruise to add on to our 50th trip. Prior to all of this, I was thrilled with a 7-night park trip. Now, I'm thinking 5 park nights is probably plenty since there will likely be less available to do/experience. I'll make the final call sometime next summer when we have a clearer picture of what the parks look like at that time.

I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people scale back but still go.

 

[csmith1004]

I called at exactly at 7:00 am 499 days prior to an arrival date of Sept 30 for 4 nights and was able to reserve a Tower Magic Kingdom View. I heard that the the concierge rooms and Tower Magic Kingdom View rooms were sold out around 11:00 am.

I booked a room only Theme Park view room for 10/3-10/5 for my 25th anniversary. The very next day they stopped taking reservations. I’m SO glad I went ahead and booked instead of waiting for a package. We will be at WDW for the actual 50th but are staying at All Stars 9/30-10/3.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

They have qr codes for menus in English, French and Spanish.

No Portuguese? (Lots of Brazilians visit.)

 

[yulilin3]

No Portuguese? (Lots of Brazilians visit.)

Trying to find a pic of the paper with the codes, it might be there i just can't remember

 

[yulilin3]

Found it

 

[LSUmiss]

We just got back from a full week out there. It was undeniably hot and I will avoid August in the future, but it didn't ruin our trip. Masks were not fun to have to wear, but again, not trip ruining and we were ok. We were really happy to be there and for the most part had a great time. Just had to go with the flow for a lot of things not open, not operating, limited capacity, closing early, etc. Lines were longer and parks busier than I would have thought after reading about others' experiences, but still MUCH shorter/lower than we would have experienced during a normal trip. We went on pretty much everything we wanted to go on each day, at each park.

It's was definitely a memorable trip and we have tons of mask-on pictures to remind us of our "great pandemic WDW trip of 2020."

Summary of pros/cons:

• Pros
  • Shorter Lines
  • Lower crowd levels
  • Pools were great
  • Cast Members were excellent, as usual
  • Most food was great
  • Most people were respectful and good about mask wearing and social distancing, and everyone was happy to be there
  • More mobile ordering (I love mobile ordering)
  • Hand sanitizer everywhere (this should remain permanently)
  • 30% AP Merch Discount was freaking phenomenal. I saved literally hundreds of dollars.
  • WE GOT TO BE AT DISNEY WORLD
• Cons (while there are many more, they still don't outweigh the pros and we're really glad we went!)
  • Mask wearing is not fun, but not world-ending. Biggest impacts from masks are:
    • Hearing each other -- too often I was trying to have a conversation with a CM and we're both wearing masks and they're behind plexiglass
    • Pictures -- others seem to be good at it, but I'm not good at smiling with my eyes. Even though I was smiling, I look irritated or mad in a lot of my pictures.
    • Ear fatigue -- I actually found an ear-saver on the ground and ended up sanitizing it and using it the rest of my trip -- it was a life (ear!) saver!
    • Where to put it when taking it off -- I recommend getting a binky lanyard of some kind to hold your mask when taking it off. No good places in the bathroom or a restaurant to put your mask.
    • If you have a larger face and/or beard, make sure you have your comfortable masks before you come in the parks. I searched for 5 of my 8 days for an XL disney mask and couldn't find any. They're very rare! Even once I found them, they're sized inconsistently and only 1 of the 2 I bought fit me.
    • Once in a while it did feel a little suffocating. During those times, it helped to pull it away from your face a little (not to the side, and not off) when breathing in, then back on your face when breathing out so it can do the job it was intended to do.
  • Transportation -- it was extremely difficult to get home to BLT after we had dinner at Riviera and Wilderness Lodge. On both occasions a CM had to make a "special exception" to get us home.
    • Bay Lake Boat Transportation loop (Contemporary/WL/Ft. Wilderness) was closed
    • Epcot Monorail Closed
    • Bus transportation was awkward with social distancing, and Contemporary bus stop did poor job and enforcing first-come-first serve, so a lot of people would jump ahead to get on the next bus.
    • Usually my solution involved getting back to MK then walking home from there, but they said they weren't allowed to bring guests to MK after park close, which was at 7, and that was usually after we had finished dinner.
    • My backup plan was to take a bus to the springs then a bus to BLT, luckily did not have to do that.
  • TOTWL at BLT Closed
  • Electric Water Pageant Closed (I think I missed this the most, out of everything)
  • While I like mobile ordering, they had a glitch where they would cancel your order if you didn't complete it with a certain amount of time. I lost a few orders this way, even while actively adding things to the order
  • No Fireworks, of course
  • Everything closes too early (parks, pools, restaurants) -- there's nothing to do after 9p
  • QR Codes for Menus got old fast -- I hate using phones at the table
  • No park or resort delivery from gift shops -- minor annoyance if I decided to buy something earlier in the day
  • Lines to get into shops, especially at the end of the day
  • Almost everything is off on Kali River Rapids. We couldn't get wet at all despite going on it three times. They said they didn't want people to get their masks wet.
  • I lost a ROTR boarding group #1 because lightning knocked out the ride the night before

Again, seems like I'm complaining about a lot, but I'm actually really glad we went -- we had a great time and you will too as long as you keep your expectations low and remain easy going while there.

That would make me want to ride kali again. Don’t mind splash wet, but kali wet is usually ridiculous.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

I struggled to place an order at Regal Eagle last weekend. I could go all the way to the end and each time I hit submit, I got the error message. Finally went to a CM, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, and they all had no idea what to do, either, and didn't seem willing to just let me order and pay either (there was a cashier there). Finally hit it 5000 times and it submitted. Remarkably, I wasn't charged 5000 times either!

I can see a lot of frustration when people are hot and hungry and the technology doesn't work. I get why they want you to mobile order (and normally love it!), but they need a back-up plan when someone can't. Like the AP who was turned away at Satuli because of a dead phone battery.

Before they closed down in March, we often had trouble with mobile order (site wouldn't load, order wouldn't go through, etc). We've actually preferred mobile order (despite the IT troubles), but we're also very familiar with what each QS location serves, speak English, carry portable phone batteries, have unlimited internet, etc. I can definitely see why mobile order doesn't work for everyone. Luckily no issues with the mobile order side this most recent trip. However, we couldn't get the QR codes to check in at sit down restaurants to work a couple times (several people were having trouble with the Le Cellier one).

One issue was the CMs didn't want to let anyone by the food pick up areas without a mobile order confirmation (esp difficult with indoor QS locations like Pecos), but there also wasn't a way to mobile order cups of ice water. Not that the CMs were intentionally blocking access to get water, but that there were too many people trying to get into the areas to get food without having placed an order, so the CMs were kind of having to act as bouncers. It was a (for us, mildly) frustrating added obstacle to getting drinks (which especially sucks when it's a million degrees outside).

I think Disney's going to need to up their IT game quite a bit if they want people to use their phones more (and get better WiFi across the entire property).

 

[mmackeymouse]

I saw someone else post on Facebook that they wanted to go eat somewhere (I believe it was Sautu'li) and the CM out front said they had to mobile order but the guest responded their phone was out of power so wasn't able to

So definitely feel like going forward they can't rely solely on phones - be it people out of power of wifi issues or international people that don't have service, people who don't have a smart phone, etc.

The thing that is just so frustrating is that the vloggers, multiple vloggers, said that there would still be the option to order and pay in cash, you just have to tell them at the entrance, and they will direct you. I thought that was a perfectly reasonable solution.

But, then some regular people report that they aren't allowed to order unless it is mobile order. So, what's the truth? I am quite certain that they wouldn't go to exclusively mobile order, for the reasons that have already been pointed out here. The frustration lies in either CMs not being trained to know what to do in those situations or deliberately turning away cash payers for whatever reason.

As for me, I prefer mobile order. I like it. I wish the customizations were a little bit better, a little bit more uniform. For example...at Regal Eagle. I know we are going to need a kids' chicken salad meal, but it doesn't give you the option to customize what is on the salad. On the adult portion, it does. Things like that. I think if they could smooth the rough edges there, mobile order would be used quite a bit more.

I struggled to place an order at Regal Eagle last weekend. I could go all the way to the end and each time I hit submit, I got the error message. Finally went to a CM, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, who sent me to another, and they all had no idea what to do, either, and didn't seem willing to just let me order and pay either (there was a cashier there). Finally hit it 5000 times and it submitted. Remarkably, I wasn't charged 5000 times either!

I can see a lot of frustration when people are hot and hungry and the technology doesn't work. I get why they want you to mobile order (and normally love it!), but they need a back-up plan when someone can't. Like the AP who was turned away at Satuli because of a dead phone battery.

Yeah, I can't imagine that someone would be turned away because of no access to their phone. Doesn't quite make sense.

 

[Mit88]

Again, seems like I'm complaining about a lot, but I'm actually really glad we went -- we had a great time and you will too as long as you keep your expectations low and remain easy going while there.

Not at all. You’re pointing out the Cons, and all of what you mentioned are definitely in that category. I leave next Monday and I’ve been prepared for all of the changes. Its unfortunate, but I know the full magic will be back someday in the future and it’ll feel even more special to be there.

 

[cristen72]

One issue was the CMs didn't want to let anyone by the food pick up areas without a mobile order confirmation (esp difficult with indoor QS locations like Pecos), but there also wasn't a way to mobile order cups of ice water. Not that the CMs were intentionally blocking access to get water, but that there were too many people trying to get into the areas to get food without having placed an order, so the CMs were kind of having to act as bouncers. It was a (for us, mildly) frustrating added obstacle to getting drinks (which especially sucks when it's a million degrees outside).

I had not even thought about the difficulties of getting the free cups of water. What has worked for people here? Buying bottled water will add up.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

I had not even thought about the difficulties of getting the free cups of water. What has worked for people here? Buying bottled water will add up.

We took along an extra suitcase (had to take advantage of the AP 30% off deal they had going on), and filled it w bottled water from Costco. Took a couple cold waters into the parks w us each day.

They will let you into QS locations to get water, you just have to tell the CMs what you're doing. We had to wait for the CMs to talk with other groups (explain mobile order, deal with ppl yelling at them) a few times before we could let them know we just needed water.

 

[Wiltony]

One issue was the CMs didn't want to let anyone by the food pick up areas without a mobile order confirmation (esp difficult with indoor QS locations like Pecos), but there also wasn't a way to mobile order cups of ice water. Not that the CMs were intentionally blocking access to get water, but that there were too many people trying to get into the areas to get food without having placed an order, so the CMs were kind of having to act as bouncers. It was a (for us, mildly) frustrating added obstacle to getting drinks (which especially sucks when it's a million degrees outside).

Was there last week and the CMs were definitely acting as bouncers, blocking access to the building to anyone who did not have a "your order is ready for pickup" notification on their phones. Could not get in for the bathroom, water, or to find a table, without a confirmed pickup notification. This was in multiple locations. Because I was having issues with the mobile order system nuking your entire order if not completed within a few minutes (even if actively adding things to the order -- I wasn't idle or anything), I asked to place an order in person. I was bounced around twice and after being questioned about my woes, I was finally led to one CM who took my order the old fashioned way. So they *can* do it, but it's quite a feat to get them to let you!

 

[crazy4wdw]

I think a lot of people will still go, but I also think that the festivities will be scaled back. I went ahead and used a placeholder that was going to expire on a 4 night DCL cruise to add on to our 50th trip. Prior to all of this, I was thrilled with a 7-night park trip. Now, I'm thinking 5 park nights is probably plenty since there will likely be less available to do/experience. I'll make the final call sometime next summer when we have a clearer picture of what the parks look like at that time.

I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people scale back but still go.

Doing the same thing, booked on a 4 night cruise which sails on October 4, 2021.

 

[Geomom]

I had not even thought about the difficulties of getting the free cups of water. What has worked for people here? Buying bottled water will add up.

We brought reusable bottles, filtered the water in our room, added some crystal light to it to make it more palatable, and brought a bottle for each of us into the parks. I think we bought a total of 3 bottled waters and 2 other bottled drinks on our 2 week trip...plus some drinks with meals.